Edit: A poll has been added and will be live until the evening of Sunday the 9th. Please read the thread through to see the arguments for and against each option before voting.

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This thread is just for discussing how to treat the Best Art category or categories and not for anything else.

I will open a poll based on the options suggested in this thread on Sunday 2nd August between 9 and 10pm GMT and close it around the same time on Sunday 9th August.

The questions that have been brought up through the main categories thread so far are:

Should we have one overall Best Art award?
Should we have separate awards for Best Colour Art and Best Black and White Art?
Should we have an award for Best Non-traditional Art to cover photocomics, 3D comics and mixed media comics?

Are there any other questions or suggestions that people have about this category?_________________Blog

Last edited by wendyw on Wed Aug 12, 2009 3:09 am; edited 2 times in total

Given the different kinds of techniques and the different amounts of time involved in each type of comic creation, I think "best art" should be split up. Originally I argued for black and white vs colour, because they can both be seen as having certain advantages over each other - colour is naturally more attractive, but generally takes longer.

At the time I debated these issues, I admit I had overlooked non-traditional techniques such as 3D art, photocomics, and using programs like G-mod to pose digital actors. I think these should be recognised too, as they too have different kinds of techniques involved. In fact, if it weren't for certain disadvantages to such a course of action, I'd argue for each of the three above mentioned techniques to have their own category too*. As it is, I nevertheless think they should be recognised, and as such propose that rather than a single "best art" category, we should split it into black and white, colour, and non-traditional.

This will recognise the best in each type of artistic creation without putting certain groups in the shade simply because they're less popular or "don't count as art"**.

*Reasons against splitting non-traditional media:
1. There are several different kinds of non-traditional media, and as with the genres debate, everyone using a slightly different technique will call for their technique to be a new category.
2. We want to limit the number of categories so as not to overwhelm both organisers and judges.
3. Non-traditional media are still fairly minor compared to traditional media, and will, grouped, still be likely to be a smaller category than either black and white or colour art. Splitting it up will create many even smaller categories that will end up with too few nominations.

**Art is subjective; while one person might say Jackson Pollard's works or Mark Rothko's works are a load of rubbish, another would claim they're the pinnacle of modern art. Similarly, while one person might claim a photograph isn't "art", another would vehemently disagree. The same goes for other forms of new media._________________"S*P*Q*R"

If we’re going to have an “Innovation / Non-Tradtional” award, we can’t have a “Best non-tradtional art” on top of that. That’d be two awards for a comparatively small “genre” of webcomics.

I think the art category should be split up in “Best color art” and “Best black and white art”. But no “Best art” on top of that since that would only inflate the number of awards and the “Best color art” winner would most likely win “Best art”, too. But only “Best art” would be not enough since stuff like “Digger” has to be able to win an art related award despite all those color suckers out there ._________________

I, unsurprisingly, also support the idea of splitting into "Best Black and White Art" and "Best Colour Art", because I do believe that these are two different disciplines. I would also support "Best Non-Traditional Media."_________________

Non traditional art and innovation are not necessarily the same thing though. A pen and ink only comic could win the innovation award because of their use of panelling, website interface and unique subject matter, whereas a photocomic might not be doing anything exactly new, not covering new areas of storytelling, using traditional panel layouts, etc, but they could still be the best looking photocomic out there.

The same can be said for 3D comics, or comics that use collage work. I've seen some very good looking collage art in webcomics before but it wasn't anything I hadn't seen in print before style wise. It wasn't innovative, but it sure was very pretty._________________Blog

I, unsurprisingly, also support the idea of splitting into "Best Black and White Art" and "Best Colour Art", because I do believe that these are two different disciplines. I would also support "Best Non-Traditional Media."